7of7Mike Judge, from left, Martin Starr and T.J. Miller pose on the red carpet for the world premiere of his television series "Silicon Valley" during the SXSW Film Festival on Monday, March 10, 2014, in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP)Photo: Jack Plunkett, Associated Press

T.J. Miller has no shortage of work — he voices the lead character and executive produces “The Gorburger Show” on Comedy Central, has an upcoming stand-up special on HBO and will star in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” feature film, and the “Deadpool” sequel.

San Francisco Chronicle pop culture critic Peter Hartlaub spoke with actor T.J. Miller at the Colossal Clusterfest in San Francisco. They talked about his "The Gorburger Show," San Francisco cuisine and (in this clip) the recent announcement that Miller would be leaving "Silicon Valley."

Video: Mariecar Mendoza and Peter Hartlaub

But it was still a surprise when HBO announced last week that Miller and his character Erlich Bachman would not be returning to “Silicon Valley” for Season 5. The Chronicle spoke to Miller on Friday, June 2, before the gates opened for the first day of the Colossal Clusterfest, where he was set to voice and puppet his alien talk show host alter ego Gorburger in “Gorburger Live.”

“I just saw this organic ending that the writers wrote,” Miller said of his “Silicon Valley” departure. “I saw this moment where the character could come to an end, and that would have to change the show. The show would have to become different. And that probably was the best thing I could do for the show.”

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic and host of the podcast The Big Event. The Bay Area native has worked at The Chronicle since 2000, and was a Chronicle paperboy from 1982 to 1984. He reviews movies, television and comedy, covers entertainment, creates multimedia projects and writes the Our San Francisco local history column. The Big Event is recorded in The Chronicle’s basement archive. Hartlaub lives in Alameda.